Guide

How to draw your garden

Gardener reads your drawing and builds a 3D garden from it. A clear drawing and a few labels give the best result and leave less to fix afterwards.

What a good drawing looks like

Draw the garden from above, like a map, not from the side.
Put the whole garden in the picture, up to its edges.
Use clear, dark outlines on light paper. For a photo, take it straight from above, in good light and without shadows.
Draw each thing once and keep things apart; do not draw one on top of another.
Draw paths, hedges and fences as lines; draw lawns, beds, ponds and terraces as closed shapes; draw buildings as their outline.
Text, arrows, a compass, measuring lines and a title box are fine — Gardener does not turn them into things in the garden.

Files: JPEG, PNG or WebP, at most 10 MB, each side from 200 to 10 000 pixels.

How to label it

Write the name next to a thing — "apple tree", "shed", "pond". Any language is fine; Gardener translates it.
Own symbols? Explain them in the Legend field on the upload page, for example "X = apple tree, wavy line = hedge".
Give the size. Enter the real width of the whole picture in metres on the upload page. Without it, Gardener guesses from the drawing, or takes 30 m.
A scale bar or measurements in the drawing also help Gardener get the size right.

Examples

Names written next to each thing

A coloured-pencil plan from above. Each thing has its name next to it, the path is two lines, the fence a line with ticks, and a scale bar sits in the corner. Gardener found every item.

Legend

empty — the names are written in the drawing

Image width

25 m

Own symbols, explained in the legend

A pen plan with no words, only symbols. The legend field on the upload page says what each symbol means, so Gardener can read them all.

Legend

Circle with X = tree, black dot = bush, zig-zag line = hedge, hatched rectangle = house, grid of small squares = terrace, dashed band = path, oval with waves = pond, square with T = trampoline, rectangle with short lines = raised vegetable bed

Image width

25 m

What Gardener knows

Gardener turns these things into your 3D garden. The picture shows how each one looks in 3D; the text says how to draw it. Anything else becomes a grey placeholder you can change in the editor.

Single things — draw a symbol where it stands

Bench

A single garden bench without a table, drawn as a short bar or a bench symbol. A table with chairs is a seating area.

Bush

A small round shrub, lower and smaller than a tree; e.g. Amelanchier or Buddleja.

Flowering
Plain

Fireplace

A small circle with flames, a fire pit or an outdoor fireplace.

Pull-up bar

A free-standing pull-up bar or crossbar: two posts with one bar across, drawn as a short line between two dots.

Trampoline

A round garden trampoline, drawn as a circle (often with a net or a cross-hatched mat), usually 2.5-4 m across; not a pond or a round flower bed.

Tree

A circle, a cloud shape or a tree symbol. Pine: a conifer with a bare trunk and a high, irregular crown. Fir: a cone-shaped conifer (fir or spruce), green down to the ground. Oak, birch or fruit tree when the name is written next to it.

Birch
Fir or spruce
Fruit tree
Oak
Pine

Buildings and structures — draw their outline from above

Carport

A parking spot for a car, often a rectangle with a car drawn in it. With roof: when it is drawn with a roof or posts.

With roof

House / cottage

A large rectangle, often with a roof hatch or a label.

Raised bed

A raised vegetable or herb bed in a timber frame, a rectangle often labelled raised bed or with rows of vegetables; not a flat flower bed.

Sandpit

A small square or rectangular sand box for children, often labelled sand or dotted; not a flower bed or a terrace.

Seating area

A small group of a table with chairs or benches, on a terrace or lawn.

Shed

A small rectangle near the edge of the plot.

Swing

A children's swing set: a frame with a top beam and one or more hanging seats, drawn as a narrow rectangle or an A-frame symbol; not a pergola.

Wall bars

Outdoor wall bars (a ladder of horizontal rungs between two posts) for exercise, drawn as a thin rectangle with rungs.

Paths, hedges and fences — draw a line

Fence

A thin line with ticks or crosses, often at the plot edge.

Hedge

A thick wavy or scalloped line.

Path

Two parallel lines or a dotted band.

Lawns, beds, ponds and terraces — draw a closed shape

Flower bed

A small area with flower symbols or dots. Roses, ornamental grasses, mainly yellow flowers, or a mix of kinds and colours when the drawing says so; otherwise a plain flower bed.

Ornamental grasses
Mixed planting
Roses
Yellow flowers

Lawn

A large open area, often green or hatched with short strokes.

Pond

A rounded area with waves or blue colour.

Terrace

A paved or decked area by the house, often rectangular and sometimes drawn with a table or a pergola grid; larger than a path.

With pergola
With roof